This is it. The last unique words on the MacNN homepage, barring some miracle. Hey gang, I'm Mike Wuerthele, and I've been your host here for the last couple of years, so it's only fitting that I'm the one turning off the lights.

As much as we lampoon some of the sillier rumors in this space, we do like taking a peek into the crystal ball of what might happen and picking out our favorites to bet on. As we all know, some of them come true, some of them never do, some may come true someday -- so they're like prayers, in a way -- and there is some fun in handicapping the likelihood of which camp a given rumor will fall. In recent years, the dead zone between the end of WWDC and the announcement of the new hotness(es) in the fall there comes a second "silly season" where analysts, pundits, and other assorted otherwise-unemployable types put out their guesses. This year, it is particularly contradictory.

Apple is abusing its position as gatekeeper to the App Store by blocking the latest version of Spotify's iOS app, according to a letter allegedly sent from the streaming company to Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell. A report claims Spotify general counsel Horacio Gutierrez is "causing grave harm to Spotify and its customers" by rejecting the iPhone app update, with Apple's billing system being at the heart of the complaint.

Editor's Note: there are many examples of our MacNN Podcast that we are proud of, but this one we picked as an example of "the best of MacNN" because it is so representative of what the podcast was about: comraderie, laughs, news, insight. Even though the podcast focused on stories that had already been reported on the site, it gave listeners both our analysis of those events as well as a look at the people behind the reporting. The good news is that the podcast will continue after MacNN's shutdown under a new name, so we hope previous listeners and new ones will join us for more banter, bad jokes, and ballyhoo starting the week of July 11. To our previous listeners, thank you again for your support. We loved doing this, and we think this episode shows that well.

For a long time, MacNN has been highlighting great offers from the MacNN Deals store for our readers to enjoy, and this is the last installment. Today's selections are all software tools for you to use on your Mac, including one powerful text editor, a fantastic scanning app, something to jazz up your photographs, and an ideal addition to your toolkit if you need to improve your productivity.

Editor's Note: Over the last week, we have been highlighting some of the more memorable stories from MacNN's archive, re-running them and providing some updates on what happened afterward. While some selections have been important moments in the site's history, items such as the 2013 story of a lawyer suing Apple because it's devices didn't prevent him from viewing pornography are chosen for their sheer absurdity.

In part one of this piece, we took a look at some of the headline features in macOS Sierra, coming later this fall. This time around, we examine some of the other features that Apple has baked into macOS Sierra. As we noted last time, there is a lot to like about what Apple is adding to the macOS mix with this latest update. Features like Apple Pay for the web, Auto Unlock with Apple Watch, Universal Clipboard, iCloud Drive, Optimized Storage, and Tabs are also worth a look, particularly as the latter is something I suggested to Apple a couple of years ago, and it's great to see them implement it.

A long-running store that provided Apple-related products and services is preparing to shut down in New York City, after 29 years of operation. Founded in 1987 and predating Apple's own retail empire by more than a decade, Tekserve has confirmed it is preparing to shutter its store and wind down its service center over the next two months, with around 70 people losing their jobs from the West 23rd Street store's closure.

Normally on MacNN, we point our readers at some of the giveaways happening over at MacNN Deals. Since this is the last giveaway post to grace the front page of this site, we thought that it would be best to highlight all the ongoing giveaways at the store rather than just one, giving you a final chance to know about everything that is up for grabs and to enter if you haven't already, including one competition we haven't had time to promote.

Bang and Olufsen has unveiled the first wireless earphones in the company's history, to go alongside its existing wireless headphone collection. The Beoplay H5 take the appearance of a cleanly-designed pair of in-ear earphones, with the two audio-producing sections connected by a braided cable and a compact remote section, minimizing the amount of extra bulk that typically accompanies wireless earphones to house batteries and radio components.

Editor's Note: as we count down the last days of MacNN, we've been picking some favorite stories to re-run. We've seen it all across these 21 years, and we've pointed to some of the biggest stories we've ever covered, but just as memorable are the oddball ones. This is another of those: the phrase "detachable beeper disc digital gym shoe computer wrist watch" won't leave our minds anytime soon, nor Ms. Washington-Gross' demand for $5 billion in recompense from Apple (and not anyone else in the wearable field, it would seem). The case was dismissed about a month after it was filed, but it lives on in our hearts.

Some of you may have a similar feeling when you find out that they have torn down your old childhood school, or when you see a picture of your old flame; there are a lot of happy memories, and everything turned out okay, but what was and could have been are a bit sad nonetheless now that they're gone. I have been really touched and a bit overwhelmed at the outpouring of well-wishes and memories from our readers, Twitter followers, FB buddies, fellow Apple-centric sites, and others around the world, and like you I wish things had turned out differently, but the feedback has made a bad week better.

Every day until our closure tomorrow, we are showcasing some of the offers available from our MacNN Deals store. For a change, all the items today have been chosen by Malcolm Owen, the person who usually compiles these deals posts, and are all things he wouldn't mind owning for himself or thinks are pretty cool pieces of tech. No theme today, just his personal selections.

On Wednesday, Apple released both developer and public-tester versions the fourth beta for its next current-release update for OS X and iOS, and a developer-only fourth beta for tvOS. Developers are also expecting to gain access to a second beta for the major upgrades to these and watchOS in the near future, as it has been two weeks since the first beta was released at WWDC. The latest updates -- iOS 9.3.3, OS X 10.11.6, and tvOS 9.2.2 -- are focused on bug fixes, along with security and performance enhancements, as usual.

Editor's Note: Today marks the ninth anniversary of the iPhone's initial sale to the public. On June 29, 2007, the smartphone that effectively changed the mobile phone industry, and arguably computing as a whole, overnight was put on sale in Apple Stores, though with this Best Of MacNN post, we're instead looking at an earlier event, namely when it was first unveiled onstage by Apple chief Steve Jobs during Macworld.

Apple's latest version of its desktop OS has picked up a rebrand, bringing it into alignment with its tvOS, watchOS, and iOS lowercase stablemates. The rebrand also suggests that Apple is going to settle into a pattern of continually evolving its desktop OS iteratively -- OS X is now macOS in perpetuity, with the internal codename now taking top billing. While it naturally picks up several new marquee features, the arrival of Siri on the Mac is by far the biggest news in macOS Sierra. Read on for our initial thoughts.

While in no way legal or binding, The Little Las Vegas Chapel has played host to an unusual ceremony where a man named Aaron Chervenak had a commitment ceremony to "marry" his iPhone. While the groom himself did not comment, chapel owner Michael Kelly, who has overseen similar ceremonies involving pets "getting married" or "weed weddings" where people professed their love for marijuana, said the "iPhone marriage" was intended as a statement on society's dependence on the devices.

Apple has come up with a way to control functions of a smartphone, via infrared light. The recently published patent for "Systems and methods for receiving infrared data with a camera designed to detect images based on visible light" (9,380,225) suggests infrared light received by a sensor could be used to transmit data to the device, forcing functions to work in specific ways, or in some applications, temporarily disabling some elements entirely.

For quite a while now, MacNN sometimes finds a deal that is too big or important to go into our other deal lists, and is deserving enough to be highlighted inside its own Big Deals post. Even though the clock is running out for MacNN, we're still going to point out the deals we think you will enjoy like we always have. Like last summer, we've found one of the largest photography bundles deals available, with the aptly named The Big Deal 2016 from Foto Promos.

Apple is helping to fund the music videos of artists and bands, as part of its plan to gain exclusives for its streaming music service. Executives from both Apple and elsewhere in the industry advised to a report the iPhone producer has helped finance musical projects, including Drake's Hotline Bling and MIA's Borders videos, to not only get content for its subscribers not available anywhere else, but also to make Apple Music a more attractive place to be, in a similar vein to MTV in the 1990's.

Now AAPL Stock: 153.14 ( + 2.59 )

Cirrus creates Lightning-headphone dev kit

Apple supplier Cirrus Logic has introduced a MFi-compliant new development kit for companies interested in using Cirrus' chips to create Lightning-based headphones, which -- regardless of whether rumors about Apple dropping the analog headphone jack in its iPhone this fall -- can offer advantages to music-loving iOS device users. The kit mentions some of the advantages of an all-digital headset or headphone connector, including higher-bitrate support, a more customizable experience, and support for power and data transfer into headphone hardware. Several companies already make Lightning headphones, and Apple has supported the concept since June 2014. http://bit.ly/29giiZj

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Apple Store app offers Procreate Pocket

The Apple Store app for iPhone, which periodically rewards users with free app gifts, is now offering the iPhone "Pocket" version of drawing app Procreate for those who have the free Apple Store app until July 28. Users who have redeemed the offer by navigating to the "Stores" tab of the app and swiping past the "iPhone Upgrade Program" banner to the "Procreate" banner have noted that only the limited Pocket (iPhone) version of the app is available free, even if the Apple Store app is installed and the offer redeemed on an iPad. The Pocket version currently sells for $3 on the iOS App Store. [32.4MB]

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Porsche adds CarPlay to 2017 Panamera

Porsche has added a fifth model of vehicle to its CarPlay-supported lineup, announcing that the 2017 Panamera -- which will arrive in the US in January -- will include Apple's infotainment technology, and be seen on a giant 12.3-inch touchscreen as part of an all-new Porsche Communication Management system. The luxury sedan starts at $99,900 for the 4S model, and scales up to the Panamera Turbo, which sells for $146,900. Other vehicles that currently support CarPlay include the 2016 911 and the 2017 models of Macan, 718 Boxster, and 718 Cayman. The company did not mention support for Google's corresponding Android Auto in its announcement. http://bit.ly/295ZQ94

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Apple employees testing wheelchair features

New features included in the forthcoming watchOS 3 are being tested by Apple retail store employees, including a new activity-tracking feature that has been designed with wheelchair users in mind. The move is slightly unusual in that, while retail employees have previously been used to test pre-release versions of OS X and iOS, this marks the first time they've been included in the otherwise developer-only watchOS betas. The company is said to have gone to great lengths to modify the activity tracker for wheelchair users, including changing the "time to stand" notification to "time to roll" and including two wheelchair-centric workout apps. http://bit.ly/2955JDa

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SanDisk reveals two 256GB microSDXC cards

SanDisk has introduced two 256GB microSDXC cards. Arriving in August for $150, the Ultra microSDXC UHS-I Premium Edition card offers transfer speeds of up to 95MB/s for reading data. The Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card can read at a fast 100MB/s and write at up to 90MB/s, and will be shipping sometime in the fourth quarter for $200. http://bit.ly/294Q1If

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Apple's third-quarter results due July 26

Apple has advised it will be issuing its third-quarter results on July 26, with a conference call to answer investor and analyst queries about the earnings set to take place later that day. The stream of the call will go live at 2pm PT (5pm ET) via Apple's investor site, with the results themselves expected to be released roughly 30 minutes before the call commences. Apple's guidance for the quarter put revenue at between $41 billion and $43 billion. http://apple.co/1oi1Pbm

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Twitter stickers slowly roll out to users

Twitter has introduced "stickers," allowing users to add extra graphical elements to their photos before uploading them to the micro-blogging service. A library of hundreds of accessories, props, and emoji will be available to use as stickers, which can be resized, rotated, and placed anywhere on the photograph. Images with stickers will also become searchable with viewers able to select a sticker to see how others use the same graphic in their own posts. Twitter advises stickers will be rolling out to users over the next few weeks, and will work on both the mobile apps and through the browser. http://bit.ly/29bbwUE